Oxford Colonial Tour

1. The Pitt Rivers Museum:

 What is the British empire? What is colonialism?

See Takes on Empire for Oxford Academics interpreting what these terms can mean.

Opening with these questions: 

• Why did Rhodes Must Fall say this the PRM was the violent space in Oxford?
• Why was the Pitt Rivers set up?
• What’s in the Pitt Rivers? 
• How did these objects get there? 
• Discussion of the Benin Bronzes, and Fly Whisk and other appropriate objects
• What should happen to these objects now? 
• Should objects be repatriated?

 
2. All Souls College: 

• Slavery and its relationship to the British Empire and Oxford 
• RMF protest outside All Souls 
• Why did the protests happen? 
• Why did they choose protest as a tool to express their grievance?  
• How did empire begin? Ireland; Plantations; the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 
• How did these enrich Britain? 

To see at All Souls:

• Plaque acknowledging the origins of Codrington Library’s funds.
• Statue of Codrington. 
• Who is Christopher Codrington? 
• Relationship of descendants to this statue 
• All Souls Reparations : how should we remember Codrington, what does reparative justice look like? 
• It is tied to the resistance to slave trade, the eventual end of the slave trade, 19th c student protests, and eventually the rising importance of India for British economy 

3. Indian Institute:

• From slavery, the story moves to the colonisation of India.

To see: Carvings; The Plaque Inside

• Why is this in Oxford? 
• The  Indian institute was  set up to train officials of the British Raj. 
• Those trained at the Indian institute would have been presiding over disasters like the Bengal famine. 
•  Lord Curzon is particularly interesting. He was the Viceroy of India, and eventually Chancellor of the University of Oxford. 
• Relationship between race and power relations.
• Discussion of cultural appropriation and its relation to power relations 
• Chronic lack of funding; current status as Oxford Martin school.
• Does this reinforce the  idea of institutional interest in empire when we have it, but in post-colonial times, history is whitewashed? 
• Is there a divorce of imperial history from British history? How does this tie into Gove’s reforms of Education? 

4. Rhodes statue 

• Why does the statue of Rhodes look so different to the statue of Codrington? What does this say about how views of empire have changed in the intervening time? 
• Under him are King George V and Kind Edward VII him.
• Inscription says: E    L A R G A   M V N n I FI C E N T I A   C A E C I L I I    R H O D E S [By means of the generous munificence of Cecil Rhodes]
• Story of scramble for Africa
• Story of Rhodes :his role in conquering Rhodesia, and his role in the beginning of apartheid 
• Protest against him 
• History of statue, and 100 years of controversy 

5. The Oxford Union: 

Things to cover: 

• Malcolm X speech 
• Debate about reparations
• Rhodes Must Fall debate at Oxford Union
• Controversy over Ethics and Empire project. 
• How does empire still exist at Oxford, how is it being challenged, and what does it mean to decolonize?